No Dream Team For O'neal-it's Business

October 09, 1993|By Skip Myslenski.

It is already being called Dream Team II, and it will represent the United States in Toronto next August at the World Championship of Basketball. But when 10 of the NBA players on it are officially announced Saturday, Shaquille O'Neal will not be one of them.

The league's rookie of the year was invited to be part of the team, but he refused because of a marketing dispute between Pepsi, which he endorses, and USA Basketball. The 7-foot-1-inch Orlando center will be replaced by Seattle's Shawn Kemp.

Two more NBA players will be added in the spring, so the door is not completely closed to O'Neal. Said Russ Granik, vice president of USA Basketball: "If the commercial issues can be resolved and the senior men's national team committee extends an invitation to Mr. O'Neal at that time, he can still be added to the team."

Sources at USA Basketball said O'Neal wanted to be on the team, but balked at signing the standard contract all of its players must sign. That contract gives USA Basketball limited marketing rights and uses the money generated by those rights to fund other teams in international competitions-for example, the group that won the under-22 world championships last summer in Spain.

The problem, say those sources, centers on McDonald's, a USA Basketball sponsor that plans to give away cups carrying the pictures of the players on Dream Team II. Pepsi balked at this idea since McDonald's serves Coke at its restaurants.

Deadlines were extended and some accommodations were proferred, but in the end, no agreement could be reached, and O'Neal's counselors advised him to turn down the opportunity.